hemlock
noun/ˈhɛmˌlɒk/
Etymology
From Middle English hemlok, hemeluc, from Old English hemlīc, hymlīc m and hymlīce f (“hemlock, bryony, convolvulus”), of uncertain origin. speculative etymology Compare Old English hymele (“hop-vine, hops”), Old English humele (“bryony, widerton, hair moss, gold-hair, morning glory”), Danish and Swedish humle (“hops”), Icelandic humall (“hops”). Perhaps from Scythian, from Proto-Iranian *háwHmah (“ephedra; juice”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sáwHmas from Proto-Indo-European *sewh₁- (“to press out, extract”). ;cognates * (from Sarmato-Scythian *haumala) Ossetian хумӕллӕг (xumællæg, “hops”) * (from Sarmato-Scythian *hauma) Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬊𐬨𐬀 (haoma), Baluchi [script needed] (hum), Persian هوم (hôm)) * (from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma) Sanskrit सोम (soma)) More at suck.
› Any of the poisonous umbelliferous plants…
Conium, either Conium maculatum or Conium chaerophylloides.
- Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:
- In the Tyrol, on May Day, it was the custom to smoke out witches by burning bundles of black and red spotted hemlock. In the eighteenth century hemlock was used for treating cancer, syphilis, and ulcers.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 113:
1 more example
- There were bunches of wild garlic to keep out evil spirits, foxgloves for healing spells and hemlock and vervain for darker magic.1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 41:
Cicuta (water hemlock).
Poison obtained from these Conium and Cicuta plants.
Any of several coniferous trees, of the genus Tsuga, that grow in North America; the wood of such trees.
- The wind blows and the hemlocks wave their feathery leading shoots. Such a graceful profile, so elegant a tree.2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 380:
- Synonyms
- devil's bread, devil's porridge, herb bennet, poison hemlock, poison parsley, Conium maculatum, Conium chaerophylloides, beaver poison, cowbane, musquash root, poison parsnip, spotted cowbane, water hemlock
- Derived terms
- Canadian hemlock, Carolina hemlock, Chinese hemlock, eastern hemlock, Forrest's hemlock, gosh all hemlock, ground hemlock, hemlock leather, hemlock parsley, hemlock water parsnip, hemlock woolly adelgid, hemlocky, Himalayan hemlock, mountain hemlock, northern Japanese hemlock, Patton's hemlock, poison hemlock, southern Japanese hemlock, Taiwan hemlock, western hemlock